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Short answer: Your friends who think torture is effective at getting reliable information are wrong.
New Edit/info: Since this is in the news (December 2014), the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has just recently issued a report (PDF) on torture activities that the US engaged in (the link is the 500 page version). While the majority of details ...
248
Summary
It depends on your interpretation of the claim.
Were 80% of all 9th Circuit Court decisions overturned? NO, not even close.
Were 80% of the small minority of 9th Circuit Court decisions that made it to review by the Supreme Court overturned? Yes.
Only 0.12% of cases ruled on by the 9th circuit were overturned. 99.85% of cases were not heard by the ...
246
From Queensland's Department of Agriculture and Fisheries brochure Can I have a pet rabbit?,
Why are pet rabbits illegal in Queensland?
Rabbits are Australia's most destructive agricultural and environmental introduced animal pest, [...]
Can I get a permit for a pet rabbit?
A permit cannot be issued for keeping pet rabbits of any
variety ...
164
When Bernie Sanders claimed Amazon didn't pay federal income taxes in 2017, Snopes wrote a helpful article:
In regards to U.S. federal income taxes, the claim that Amazon paid none in 2017 is almost certainly factual. While Amazon’s tax filings are not public, their SEC filing for the year 2017 illustrates that the company used the tax code expertly (and ...
156
The claim grossly misrepresents the details of the law
TL;DR $50,000 is the maximum amount someone could be liable for due to egregious and repeated discrimination on account of gender identity, and the situation described in the claim is extremely unlikely to qualify.
First things first: this answer is predicated on the assumption that a "No" result on ...
150
The IRS has a section of their website, The Truth About Frivolous Tax Arguments dedicated to explaining the flaws of popular incorrect arguments of why taxes don't have to be paid.
Specifically, it says:
The requirement to pay taxes is not voluntary. Section 1 of the Internal Revenue Code clearly imposes a tax on the taxable income of individuals, ...
145
The Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan, Article 5, paragraph 3:
The Government shall ensure that, in order to conserve the
country’s natural resources and to prevent degradation of the
ecosystem, a minimum of sixty percent of Bhutan’s total land
shall be maintained under forest cover for all time.
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Counter-argument: One of the most successful interrogators of Nazi Germany did not use torture. Quite the opposite really.
Hanns Scharff, "Master Interrogator" of the Luftwaffe.
Scharff was opposed to physically abusing prisoners to obtain information. Learning on the job, Scharff instead relied upon the Luftwaffe's approved list of techniques, which ...
118
This is one of the more irritating claims I hear repeated. It's not specific to the US either.
The answer is no, merchants have no obligation to accept money for a purchase.
The simple reason is that US currency is only legal tender for debts. It is illegal to refuse legal tender for a debt. When you make a purchase at a store, there is no debt.
Rather, ...
110
No, New York does not have the death penalty.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center:
In 1995 newly-elected Governor George Pataki fulfilled a campaign promise and signed legislation reinstating the death penalty in New York, designating lethal injection as the new method of execution. In 2004, that statute was declared unconstitutional by the ...
108
No, that's chronologically impossible, because some of the alleged crimes were committed less than 8 years ago.
The charges against Manafort are specified in this indictment. Many of the charges relate to actions allegedly taken by Manafort after 2010, so he couldn't possibly have been exonerated of those charges 8 years ago. In particular, Counts Four ...
105
According to this article (French), there has never been such a law in French codes, but the rumor is persistent over time.
It seems that it all come from the censorship of George Orwell's Animal Farm, censored for its first publication in France in 1947; the pig originally named Napoléon was finally renamed Cesar.
In 1945, an Englishman, George Orwell, ...
94
Yes it is perfectly legal.
This is based on the Santorelli case, in which Ramona Santorelli was arrested for baring in public "that portion of the breast which is below the top of the areola". She was acquitted after the case went to the New York Court of Appeals (the highest court in New York) in 1992 on the grounds of equal protection. Since then there ...
91
To prevent confusion, I will highlight the definition of the verb ban from Google:
officially or legally prohibit (something).
The Lebanese American University's libraries (largest libraries in the Middle East with over 350,000 books) provide the book. Searching the catalog here with the phrase "The diary of Anne Frank" (or The Diary of a Young Girl) ...
90
Even if such a law were still on the books somewhere in the U.S., it would be superseded by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which states (emphasis added):
Section 1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they ...
89
I focused on the US for this answer. An apology does not automatically lead to the party being found guilty:
The apology may not be admissible in court (but the laws are complicated, as usual).
When it is admissible, the judge or jury will be deciding if anyone is guilty or not. In many cases, an apology is not seen as strong enough evidence on its own.
A ...
88
No, Peterson is wrong on all points
Quick background: Jordan Peterson is employed at the University of Toronto, in Ontario. This is important because that determines which laws he operates under in his employment at the university.
On to the claim...
The claim by Peterson is two-fold. First it mentions Canada, and then "English Common Law", a kind of a ...
83
The proposed law co-sponsored by Clinton in 2005 prohibits flag burning under specific circumstances. It does not attempt to make flag burning illegal in general (i.e. outside of those specific circumstances). Clinton has voted against a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would allow Congress to ban flag burning in general.
In 2005, Clinton co-...
82
BBC's coverage explains how that might happen:
Jim Killock, executive director of the UK's Open Rights Group, told the BBC: "Article 13 will create a 'Robo-copyright' regime, where machines zap anything they identify as breaking copyright rules, despite legal bans on laws that require 'general monitoring' of users to protect their privacy.
"...
79
Europe
Belgium has no law regulating it (Dutch link).
In Finland there is no law regulating it.
France has a law to provide free tap water when serving a meal at a restaurant. (see here). Almost all restaurants in France accept to server free water (and free bread).
Germany does not legally mandate free tap water. Restaurant owners are free to decide ...
78
All laws related to attempted suicide in the State of New York were repealed before 1964. If the law had existed before then, it was never used.
Any laws against suicide that may have existed were repealed by the State of New York prior to 1964.
It should be emphasized that suicide is not against the law in most parts of the United States of America. ...
75
In current U.S. case law, it might be illegal to publish stolen documentary material, but prior case law rules it legal if the material is "of great public concern", which I think most media would claim the Podesta emails to be. Obviously it is legal to possess what you publish, so it is legal to read it as well.
If the Podesta material contains extensive ...
75
According to the American Bar Association article Supreme Court Reversal Rates:
Evaluating the Federal Courts of Appeals:
The reversal rates in Figure 2 range between 55% and
84%. Interestingly, this comparison of reversal rates reveals
that the Federal Circuit has the highest reversal rate at about
83.33%, and the Ninth Circuit has the second ...
70
It seems highly unlikely. The person making the claim claims there are about 64,000 suicides every year, "due to alleged misuse of section 498a of IPC against them."
He then goes on to quote the national statistics, showing that there were a grand total of 64,000 suicides by married men in 2012 (along with 32,000 by married women). This would mean that ...
68
This 2005 Keloland news article tackles the claims about South Dakota, especially Spearfish, South Dakota.
It showed there was no such law in Spearfish.
Spearfish Mayor Jerry Krambeck said, "And of course we researched as far as back as we possibly could and this was totally false."
And there was was no such law in South Dakota:
Several websites also ...
62
The name, Arkansas, is a French pronunciation of a Siouxan word meaning "land of downriver people". It is pronounced:
/ˈɑrkənsɔː/
ar-kən-saw
In 1881, the Arkansas General Assembly passed Concurrent Resolution No. 4.
The resolution was further modified in 1947 as Arkansas Code 1 April 105, and reads thusly:
Whereas,
confusion of practice has ...
61
No.
According to the US State Department's evaluation of Japan in its 2012 International Religious Freedom Report:
The [Japanese] constitution provides for freedom of religion, and other laws and policies contributed to the generally free practice of religion.
The government generally respected religious freedom in practice. There was no change in ...
59
No it is not true. The Sixteenth Amendment was adopted in 1913, so taxes not apportioned to states are constitutional. US Code 26 Subtitle A is the relevant law.
The quoted text seems to allude to a number of arguments that income tax does not need to be paid. The IRS has a page refuting frivolous tax arguments, and anyone contemplating trying to claim that ...
55
Yes and/or no
From US Code Chapter 34: National Emergencies
§1622. National emergencies
(a) Termination methods
Any national emergency declared by the President in accordance with this subchapter shall terminate if—
(1) there is enacted into law a joint resolution terminating the emergency; or
(2) the President issues a proclamation ...
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